Stir Frys : Soy Chicken and Mushroom (Ayam & Cendawan Goreng Kicap)

If you often cook, there will be some days when you have that big question mark behind your head, asking yourself, "What do I cook for today???". Sometimes, I just can't make up my mind, especially when I feel slightly lazy to make any tedious recipes that requires a lot of cleaning up after that. And sometimes, I just want to cook at home but have no idea what I want to eat... Or, hmm, sometimes, I got up late and missed /lazy to go to out and buy groceries!

To overcome all those situations, I know a simple stir fry dish would be very easy to come up with. Soy sauce is wonderful almost to any, if not all, Asian dishes. Meat or vegetarian, soy's a best friend. And so I have some chicken breast lying around in the freezer, as well as some mushrooms and some vegetables to clear up this week. I thought, a simple soy sauce stir fried with what I have would be good!

All you need is the soy sauce - I always have both dark and light ones. Dark one flavours up meaty stuffs, while light one, well I prefer it more for vegetables. SO if you don't always know what to cook but want something quick from home cooking, soy sauce is one of your best buddies next to salt & pepper. :-)

:: Soy Chicken and Mushroom Recipe ::

Serves 2
2 chicken breast, sliced about 1cm in thickness
1/2 green pepper (capsicum), sliced vertically
1 small carrot, sliced
6 button mushrooms, sliced to 3 each (I used canned ones as I didn't have fresh ones)
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce (I used Kicap Hitam Tamin)
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup water
salt & pepper to taste

Fry onion and garlic until aromatic, throw in the chicken slices and stir fry until chicken is cooked. Pour water, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, mushrooms, carrots, and capsicums.

Stir fry them until about a minute or two, and add salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm with rice or yellow noodles.

Note: There's 2 versions of dark soy sauces. The very thick ones (the texture is like oyster sauce, only really black), and the dark but watery ones. If you use the thick one, about 1/2 tablespoon would suffice. If the watery one, you can adjust the amount to your liking, and it usually comes in 2 flavours: Masin (Salty) or Lemak Manis (Sweet) ones. I like both! Learn more about soy sauces here.

Stir Frys : Spicy Turmeric Chicken (Ayam Goreng Kunyit Pedas)

A very delish turmeric chicken recipe from my sister. I've always liked spicy food, so eating plain white rice goes very nice with a spicy dish such as this. It's simple yet full of flavours - the turmeric, chilis, lemongrass, onions, lime leaves - all blends well with one another. I'm a freak for Asian food, especially spicy ones! Ooh, and sour ones like laksa and tom yum... drooollll...

It's an extended version of the normal fried chicken turmeric. It's also more Thai-ish, for the similarity in ingredients used. If you go for the local "Tom Yum" stalls around town in Malaysia, especially up in Northern states like Penang, Kedah, Perlis and Kelantan, chances are, you'll find so many yummy tomyum stalls that serves really delicious southern Thai food.

Black Pepper Beef with Spring Onions

Beef, Onions, Black Pepper. What could wrong? Nothing! This is one of my favourite mum's cooking, although I cook it slightly different than she did. I added spring onions... Just can't get enough of the oniony flavour...

I also tried the instant Black Pepper seasoning from Maggi, it tastes good as well. Either way, it's really simple to cook up this beefy dish and tastes really good with plain rice or fried rice.

:: Black Pepper Beef with Spring Onions ::

350gm Beef strips
2 stalks spring onion, cut in 1 inch lengths
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
1 tablespoon black pepper corns, freshly grounded
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar (optional)
1 cup water

Bring the water to boil, add beef strips, soy sauce, oyster sauce and cook until water reduced to half, about 20 minutes on medium heat. Then add worcestershire sauce, grounded black pepper and onions. Cook further until the water further thickens, making the gravy, and add spring onions. Cook for 3 minutes (more or less) and serve warm. Garnish with fresh strips of yellow onions.

Note: When the water is reduced, taste the gravy and adjust accordingly. You can add more dark soy sauce or add some salt or sugar, or add more pepper. The gravy should be dark brown in colour. Don't dry up the gravy as it might possibly make the meat taste dry.

Fried Fish with Lemongrass, Assam and Soy Sauce / Ikan Masak Asam & Kicap

The first time I fried a fish, I burnt it. It looked more like charcoal-ed fish! Though I fry it better now (way much better), I still dislike doing deep fried chickens or fish. Too much oil and mess involved...

For the sake of eating this delicious, savoury fish dish however, I'm willing to go through the frying process...

This is a Malay dish I'd say, the watery gravy with assam, cili padi and soy sauce - it's the sourish-ness that goes perfectly well with the fried fish that makes me love this soo much! I added lemongrass for a different taste, to which I normally use fresh ginger. Both goes well.
The fish is marinated with a little turmeric powder before it is fried, a common procedure in frying fish the Malaysian way. Chilis are pounded (just once, with the knife) to giving that spiciness a lift, dark soy sauce gives that sweet and slightly salty taste while assam makes it soury, making me want more!

The types of fish that goes well with this typre of cooking is, Indian mackerel (ikan kembung), Pompret (Bawal) and any medium-small sized fish with white flesh. Haven't tried this with Salmon or Trout! Best to use very fresh fish and to clean the fish well and get rid of its fishy smell, rub in some assam (tamarind juice) all over the fish and wash throughly.

:: Fried Fish with Lemongrass, Assam and Soy Sauce / Ikan Masak Asam & Kicap ::
2 Indian mackarel, cut and clean well
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, to marinate fish
1 teaspoon tamarind juice
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 onion, sliced
1 garlic, sliced
3-5 bird's eye chili (cili padi) or 1 green chili, sliced
1/2 tomato, cubed
1 small lemongrass, sliced (or fresh ginger strips)

Firstly, deep fry the fish until outer layer turn crispy, both sides of the fish, and drain the oil. Place on a plate that you'll use for serving later.

Fry onion, garlic, lemongrass (or ginger) in a pan, until softened and add chilis. Pour water, soy sauce, tomatoes and the tamarind juice and stir, bringing it to boil. Add sugar to taste.

Pour the gravy over the cooked fish and serve with rice. Enjoy! :-)